Wachusett tells town documents will cost $2K

Selectmen are considering their options in a monthlong effort to acquire copies of several hundred pages of financial reports from the Wachusett Regional School District.

Selectmen filed a public records request Aug. 13 asking for a year-to-date budget report from the district’s accounting system for fiscal 2012 and the copies of the spreadsheets that were furnished to the Wachusett Regional School Committee for fiscal 2012 and the current fiscal year. The request for documents from those periods highlights the Board of Selectmen’s concerns about district finances after this summer’s firing of business manager Peter Brennan for mistakes amounting to $2.7 million, first in overspending for fiscal 2012, and in under-forecasting expenses for fiscal 2013.

Susan H. Sullivan, district human resources director, replied to the town Aug. 27 that the district supplied all necessary documents to the town in its annual report and the annual audit, copies of which are provided to district towns.

Any other material, Ms. Sullivan’s letter stated, would have to be extracted and copied at the town’s expense of 30 cents per page; selectmen’s request for reports added up to more than 4,000 pages, making the cost of copies $2,148.

Holden town counsel Stephen F. Madaus of Mirick O’Connell of Worcester told the board their options were to request only electronic copies and hope to thereby avoid the fee or appeal to the state supervisor of public records, “arguing that the proposed fee is unreasonable.” Acting Town Manager Jacquelyn Kelly added that the board could also pay the cost to get the documents or take a suggestion from school board Chairman Duncan Leith, who said in a brief update to the town at the beginning of the meeting that the town could borrow the documents from a school committee member who’d requested them and make the copies themselves.

Selectmen have until Nov. 13, 90 days after the request, to appeal the decision to the state.

While selectmen took no vote on the request, the response has raised ire.

“I don’t think we should be paying $2,200 to find out how they spend our money,” board Chairman Anthony Renzoni said.

Mr. Renzoni said in the public records request that the district towns are entitled to the documents under the district’s regional agreement, but Ms. Sullivan and Mr. Madaus said the specific documents requested are not covered under that section of the agreement.

That agreement is undergoing its scheduled five-year review, and Holden selectmen are hoping to take the opportunity to discuss reworking it, reflecting some of the talk that’s continued during a summer of regional discontent with the district’s handling of finances. Mr. Leith said in his update that Superintendent Thomas Pandiscio mentioned that there might be a way the district towns could have more control over expenditures on the kindergarten through Grade 8 schools in their own towns.